subjected to government penalties and criminal prosecution if they misrepresent information from research that is supported by federal funds, even if the information is not presented directly to government officials. Research institutions and scientific investigators who apply for and receive federal funds are thus expected to comply with high standards of honesty and integrity in the performance of their research activities.

The PHS's misconduct-in-science regulations apply to research sponsored by all PHS agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. The PHS defines misconduct in science as “fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the scientific community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research. It does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data” (DHHS, 1989a, p. 32447). ⁸

The PHS's definition does not further define fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other serious deviations from commonly accepted research practices. The ambiguous scope of this last category is a topic of major concern to the research community because of the